From our Files

HONOLULU Magazine and Paradise of the Pacific, chronicling the Islands since 1888.

By Ronna Bolante

Published: 2004.11.01 12:00 AM

Nov.
1949:

Following
the meteoric rise of radio host J. Akuhead Pupule, Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor
to HONOLULU Magazine, decided to meet the man behind the microphone. "Pupule is
the instigator of this three-and-one-half-hour program of tongue-in-check huckstering,
and the fact that his show is going into its third year with ever increasing popularity
puts him high up in what might be termed a 'hulahooperating,'" writes Paradise.
Pupule also caught listeners' attention with his own brand of advertising for
his show's actual sponsors: "The Bank of Hawai'i is selling money at half price
today … See the assortment of fine used cars at Lippy's Used Car Lot. Lippy stands
squarely behind each car he sells-so he can help push it out in the street." In
the photo at left, Pupule interviews actress Joan Crawford.

Nov.
1959:

Even
before the novel Hawai'i was published, author and Pulitzer-Prize winner James
A. Michener sold the movie rights for an astounding $600,000 ($3.6 million in
today's dollars). Both Life magazine and Reader's Digest agreed to print excerpts,
as well. "Everything that can happen to a book has already happened to this one,
and it hasn't even been published," Michener, pictured at left with his wife,
Mari, told Paradise of the Pacific. "And up to now I've absolutely no clue as
to how good a book it is. I'm very anxious to see what people think of it. If
ever anybody devised a book that was not enticing to the average reader, this
is it … long and austere. But when you finish it, you'll never think of Hawai'i
in the same way again."

Nov. 1969:

A

B

C

Hawai'i
lawmakers left their seat of government at 'Iolani Palace in 1969 and moved into
the state's newly constructed $26 million Capitol building, reports HONOLULU Magazine.
But before the Capitol we know today was built, the state contemplated a few other
designs, including these three sketches: 1) This plan thrust offices into the
sky, page 173. 2) A heiau inspired this idea. 3) Volcanoes dominated this early
sketch.

Nov. 1984:

HONOLULU
Magazine interviews homegrown hero Ellison Onizuka, the nation's first astronaut
of Asian ancestry. Onizuka, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, grew up
in north Kona on the Big Island, picking coffee on his parents' farm. He talked
candidly about his childhood, his service as an Eagle Scout and his career in
aerospace, as well as the dangers associated with such work. "It's a very high-risk
environment," said Onizuka, photo above. "I buy that. If I didn't, how could I
function and make the kind of technical decisions that are required in mid-air?
The kind of thing that keeps me going is that this is an adventure. The challenge
of seeing it through is far greater than the risk." Sadly, a little more than
a year later, Onizuka was one of seven crewmembers who died in the Challenger
space shuttle disaster on Jan. 28, 1986.

Nov. 1989:

Three
years after Mary Kawena Pukui, below, died, her one-time student Dr. Samuel H.
Elbert recounted the life of this beloved Hawaiian scholar. Pukui and Elbert co-wrote
the Hawaiian Dictionary, now considered the definitive reference on Hawaiian language.
"When we came to hula steps in the dictionary, Kawena asked [her hänai daughter]
Pat to demonstrate, and although I felt unqualified for such an important task,
I tried to describe them," Elbert writes in HONOLULU Magazine. "There seemed to
be no end to Kawena's expertise. Marie Neal, a Bishop Museum botanist, would bring
in plants and Kawena would provide their Hawaiian name and their traditional usage.
… And [Kawena] was not a bit prudish and did not blanch at the sexual terms that
had to go unpurified into the dictionary."